Short season, here.

No winner this year. Tried Mortgage Lifter, Ace, Legend, and Oregon Spring.

Legend was probably the best. I'll do a couple of plants of Legend next spring, because at least it gives me ripe tomatoes, and then I will try 4-5 new varieties.

Celebrity has done well for me in the past, but could not get Celebrity seeds for love nor money last spring, Everybody (mail order) was sold out and there weren't any on the racks.

we started seed in Jan last winter a variety of tomatoes. none did well esp. the heirloom var. tractored up the remains in Aug. & planted fall/winter garden. 2 varieties for coming season; Shady Lady, Sungold with composted horse manure. Gets very hot here & these varieties are grown commercially in this climate & are large & taste good. Also Bobcat to be planted in June for later crop. I learned this from an old-timer here locally. I cant grow a tomato but he has incredible bumper crop every year. BTW perfect fall garden weather here. Eatin good! Good Luck

Absolutely loved Norduke, one of the best reds I've grown.

Are you looking for best tasting? Best producing? Best disease tolerance? I'll assume you mean Best tasting.

1. Dana's Dusky Rose
2. Gary O Sena and Hege German (tie)
3. Sudduth and Cowlick's Brandywine (tie)

Honorable Mention:

KBX
Orange Minsk
Granny Cantrell PL
Claude Brown NOT Yellow Giant
Spudakee Purple
Vorlon
German Johnson
Marianna's Peace
Big Cheef

Good year early and late, mid summer poor. best early(June to mid july)Black Krim-KBX-Brandy boy and Rutgers. late Rose-Stump-Cowlicks(LATE PLANT-OUT).Ponderosa ok all year.

So-so year for me. We had a really hot and dry summer here in central KY.

The ones that did really well were:

Black Krim: excellent production all season, though I like the flavor of Cherokee Purple better.

Green Giant: lives up to the name; good production and a pleasant surprise taste-wise.

Okay:

Opalka: came on strong in October, but I didn't get the production many others have described for most of the season.

Sweet Million: same old, same old. Great production, but taste seemed a bit off this year.

Letdowns:

Vorlon: Turned out pink -- not black; low production, good taste, but had serious problems with splitting. A day past first blush and the seed cavities would rupture and ooze.

Grandfather Ashlock: Same as Vorlon (low production and splitting), except they were pink as advertised. Excellent taste -- if they didn't end up in the compost heap due to splitting.

Yellow Brandywine: Produced nothing until mid-September, when I ended up with 7-8 tomatoes. My wife really liked them, but I wasn't quite feeling it.

San Marzano Redorta: Hampered by foliage disease early on and never recovered.

Very bad year for me here in the PNW. My best and only good Tomato was actually a Hybrid called Supersteak.

It was not a really great year overall because we had such an unseasonably cool summer, but the ones that did really well for me were:

Amazon Chocolate
Brad's Black Heart
DeWeese Streaked
Gajo De Melon
Japanese Black Trifele
Lucky Cross
Orange Russian 117
Rosalie's Early Orange
Russian Bogatyr
Ukrainian Heart
Woodle Orange

Disappointments due to little or no production were:

Aunt Gertie's Gold
Goose Creek
Grub's Mystery Green
Wes

Brandywine Pink & Marianna's Peace

The winners this season

Hungarian Giant and Ailsa Craig, last one was free with the order, thanks to Tatiana.

Silvia

We grew out several tomatoes for seed: Greek Asimina and Persimmon, cherries Sweet Baby Girl, Katinka, and Black Cherry. Persimmon was beloved by ground squirrels so we got none. The Asimina was tremendous, first to bear, last to finish, wonderful tomatoes. Others we liked were Cherokee Chocolate, Hungarian Heart (light bearer but delicious), Pineapple, and Japanese Black Trifele. Black Krim a disappointment this year. We try to have ripe tomatoes by July 4 but this year were deep into August with the exception of Asimina, which ripened in July.

Here is a link that might be useful: Laughing Frog Farm

I had one new plant of Jaune Flamme that I was pleased with the flavor. It is a small tomato. not a big yield. but it was nice flavor. This was the first year I grew it. Only one plant.

I plan on growing more next year as I saved some seed.

My first ripe tomato this year was off a Season Starter hybrid plant

Amys Sugar Gem was by far the most prolific. So, SOOO many of those. Its really like a cherry in its growth habit although the fruits are bigger than a cherry. Number 2 was probably Green Zebra. Cherokee Purple was earliest for me.

Taste and production winners last season:

Break O' Day
Ilyssa Rose (F5 Brandywine X Ace Hybrid)
Opalka
Brandy Boy
Green Giant
Paul Robeson

Thanks to Dr. Carloyn's suggestion, I tried AUNT GERTIE'S GOLD this year. It is definitely the winner (at least for yellows). That will be my only yellow tomato next year.

As usual, OPALKA, was delicious and produced well.

LARGE RED CHERRY (not sure of that is a proper name?) is a great, sweet salad tomato and produces abundantly.

This was also my first year for BLACK KRIM. It produced very good, large fruit, but I lost it to blight early.

John A

I planted my tomatoes in a new garden this year so none of them did all that great(a few more seasons of composted cow manure and good compost will fix that)but there were a few stand outs...

For Productivity alone:
Sausage

For Productivity along with Taste:
Brandywine(don't know which strain)
Black Russian
Ludmilla's Red Plum
Alyx Little Yellow Sun

Cherry Red was my biggest producer this year. Well over 100 tomatoes from 2 plants. It also was my best tomato in terms of taste.

Reif Red Heart

I am looking for easy to care for plants with little care (I shall be doing a good deal of traveling this summer). I am currently planning on Amish Paste, Cherokee Purple and Mortgage Lifter. (3 plants each... probably, I don't have a ton of space, but I like tomatoes too much!)

Any thoughts?

The one tomatoe that was consistent for me - my first year growing tomatoes (in containers) was Rutgers indeterminate. We had a horrid summer - heat and humidity. My other tomatoes completely stopped producing from June until September. Late fruiters due to the weather, were Supersweet 100, Jelly Bean Red, Black Cherry, and Burpee Supersteak. With the help of some fantastic growers on the Oklahoma Gardening forum, I will be growing a lot more next year, a mix of heirlooms and hybrids that are touted as good producing tomatoes for our wacky weather.

Susan

I should check in more often LOL. Lots of folks seem to have had their ups and downs this year.Like some that have posted I will be trying some new to me varieties plus may return two hybrids to my garden. Celebrity and Better Boy.I have a few seeds some folks in the exchange area gave me and out of hybrids these are two favorites.Also for folks with limited space I would like to recommend Al-Kuffa. Baker Creek is the only one I know of that sells it so far. This is a compact tomato which would be great for container growing.About the size of a Campari and will produce like mad up till frost.And the flavor is great too. For a big tomato I recommend Rose. It did very well this year with most fruits being 1+ pound range. Grew some other big tomatoes this year but none of them produced like Rose.Also if you do grow it next year be warned if you let them sprawl Give them plenty of room.They go crazy.I think if I had them caged they would have made it to 7 ft tall.

Some from this year that did not do so hot I am giving a second chance because they got planted late and also had rabbit problems too and had to replace about 12 plants.Hope everyone will have a great 2011 garden next year.Btw I hope to have a seed offer in the future so keep an eye out.

Kevin

we also had bad weather this year, too wet in the spring, then too dry the rest of the season.
But we had a couple really good ones
Amazon chocolate was an amazing producer this year, ditto on black and brown boar.

black krim
black cherry
dagma's perfection
flamme

Tough year here in Indiana... two that saved the day: Opalka & Golden Girl. But it wasn't the fault of the others. Blame the weather-man and me. But... the catalogs are starting to come in!

Had a hotand dry summer here in LA (Lower Alabama) as did many others. Some that did well for us were, in no particulaer order:

Bloody Butcher
Sophie's Choice (early)
Creole
Better Boy
Hege's German Pink
Big Sungold Select (From Carolyn's seed offer)
Cowlick's Brandywine
Cherokee Purple
Omar's Lebanese
Neves Azorean Red
Florida Pink
Jeff Davis
Wes

That's just off the top of my head, may have left off one or two.

Paul

First time growing from seed this year, so I experimented with quite a few different varieties--too many because I was giving bags and bags to family and friends. But IMHO really enjoyed Stupice (early & abundant), Margo (perfectly round for slicing with great flavor), Marmara, Golden Gem (cherry size), Isis Candy (Bicolor cherry size), German Giant, and Mortage Lifter. Those are the ones that stand out for flavor and production. I also grew Early Wonder, First Prize, Tomande, Goliath, Celebrity, Eva Ball Purple, Crimson Fancy, Big Beef, Virginia Sweets, and Pineapple--all of which were "OK".

This year I had several that were wowzers. The ones that went above and beyond (expectation) were the following:
Pork Chop
Red and Black Boar
Large Barred Boar
White Queen
Brads Black Heart
Indian Stripe
Prolific Mystery Red - I mixed up my seeds, and I've come to the conclusion that this was CHAPMAN
Earls Faux

I had a very good year early.....until blight claimed most of them except for Legend.

Legend
Carbon
Lemon Boy
Taxi
Beaver Lodge Slicer
Beaver Lodge Plum
Saucey
Early Doll
Health Kick
Early Arctic

Well, I had to move before the tomatoes were done so the only ones I got quite a few of were Stupice. Wish I could change my user name cause I'm not terry in colorado springs anymore! Now I am terry in IL and looking forward to better gardening success. Going all out with starting seeds with a heat mat and lights this year. Any suggestions for heirlooms for the midwest? What heirloom paste tomatoes do you like?

Only had about a three week harvest. Stink bug infestation was really bad. Pulled all plants except two Sun Golds in mid June. About the third week of July Sun Golds started to produce again. Harvested for another three weeks before finally pulling plants.

Taste:
Sun Gold 10
Cherokee Purple 9
Brandy Boy 8
Sweet Tangerine 7
Viva Italia 7
Big Beef 6
German Red Strawberry 5
Paul Robeson 5

Productivity:
Sun Gold 10
Viva Italia 9
Brandy Boy 6
Sweet Tangerine 6
Cherokee Purple 4
German Red Strawberry 2
Paul Robeson 2

Disappointed in German Red Strawberry, Paul Robeson, and Big Beef.

This was my first year growing tomatoes after a few years of not having a garden. I used some seed that were at least 5 years old leftover from my last garden and wasn't sure if they'd make it. They did, but I got irregular numbers of plants from them, making yields a little hard to determine (since I'm too lazy to weigh anything). Therefore, my totally unscientific impressions...

Best: Mortgage Lifter, Red Brandywine, Black Cherrry - all good producers and tasted good. Tolerated heat well too. Saved seed and WILL grow again.

Meh: Pink Ponderosa and Hawkins Plum - Only had 2 and 4 plants of these, respectively, but they still seemed to have poor yields, and Hawkins had terrible BER. Flavor of both were fine. Saved seed, but only MIGHT grow again.

Bad: Yellow Pear - Huge production, but flavor left much to be desired. Much like a store bought tomato. Didn't save seed; won't grow again.

As you can see, I think flavor and yield are both important. Don't see a lot of use in growing a delicious tomato if you don't get any fruit, but high yields aren't that great when the tomatoes taste lousy.

I don't think asking for both good flavor and good yields is too much to ask. :-)

Terry in IL, the best paste for me are Amish Paste and Opalka. We had a real bummer of a season because of constant rain and cold nights right through July. If we could have put the first freezes off for about 6 weeks, I would have had a decent crop. This year I am going to plant my tomatoes in two different places on the farm. The low area that stays wet is great as long as it doesn't rain EVERY SINGLE DAY. So, I am determined to have tomatoes to can this next year!

We are northwestern IL just 30 miles east of the quad cities. Where in IL are you?